of 65
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
1/65
On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-PaintingAuthor(s): Sidney ColvinSource: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 1 (1880), pp. 107-167Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/623617 .
Accessed: 08/02/2015 11:07
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Journal of Hellenic Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 89.34.228.69 on Sun, 8 Feb 2015 11:07:42 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hellenichttp://www.jstor.org/stable/623617?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/623617?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hellenic
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
2/65
CENTAURS IN
GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
107
ON
REPRESENTATIONS OF CENTAURS
IN
GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
BEFORE
coming
to
the discussion of
the three
unpublished
vase-paintings
which illustrate
this
article,
and of the
questions
which
they suggest
(Plates
I.,
II.,
III.),
it will be
proper
to
give
some account of
the Centaurs
in
general,
as
figured
on
the
painted
vases of
the
Greeks.1
The
passages
or
episodes
of the
Centaur
myth
habitually
illustrated
in this form
of
art are
five
in
number,
viz.:-
1. The battleof the Centaursand Lapithae at the weddingfeast
of
Peirithoos
and
Hippodameia,
or
Deidameia,
on
Mount
Pelion;
when the
Centaurs,
being present
as
guests,
maddened
them-
selves with
wine,
and one of
them seized the
bride;
whereupon
a
general
conflict
ensued,
ending
in
the rout
of the
monsters
and their
expulsion
from
Thessaly.
This
battle is said
by
Aelian2
to have
been
made the
subject
of
a
separate
poem by
an
early
epic
writer,
Melisandros of
Miletus; but neither of Melisandros nor his work have we any
other
record.
In
our extant
writings,
allusion is made to the
battle twice
in
the Iliad:
once
where
Nestor
extols the
Lapith
1
A
sketch of some
of the
characteristic
points
of
the
Centaur
legend
was
given
by
the
present
writer in
the
Cornhill
Magazine,
vol.
xxxviii.
(1878),
pp.
284
and
409.
The modern
literature of
this
curious
subject
s
contained
in:
Bochart,
Hierozoicon,pt. ii. lib. vi., ch. 10;
Gaspar
Baschet,
Sieur de
Meziriac,
Comm.
sur
les
Epitres
d'
Ovide,
vol.
i.
p.
149
sqq.
;
the Abbe
Banier,'Mythol.
expliqude
par
l'Histoire,
vol.
iii.
ch.
12
;
Frdret
and
Maizeray
in
Mdmoires
Litt.,
t.
viii.
p.
319,
and
t.
xii.
p.
249;
Millin,
Gal.
Encycl.
;
Voss,
Mytholo-
gische
Briefe,
Br.
1xxi.;
C.
A.
Bottiger,
Griech.
Vasengemdlde,
ii.
pp.
75-162
;
Stackelberg,
Der
Apollotempet
zu
Bassae,
p.
66
sqq.;
Welcker,
KI.
Schriften,
Th.
iii.
p.
18
sqq.;
Gerhard,
Griech. Myth., i. 544, and Id., Auserl.
Vasenbilder, 121,
130
;
Preller,
Griech.
Myth.,
ii.
p.
9,
sqq.
194-196;
Stephani,
Compte
Bendu
de
la
Comm.
imp.
d'ArchJol.
de
St.
Pitersbourg,
1865,
p.
102
sqq.;
1873,
p.
90
sqq.
;
&c.
2
Ael.
Var.
Hist.
xi.
2.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
3/65
108 ON
REPRESENTATIONS OF
warriors,
whom
he had
known
in
his
youth,
as
having
been
the
mightiest
of
earthly
heroes,
and
having
quelled
the
mightiest
foes,
to wit the Centaurs
;1
and
again
in the
catalogue
of
ships,
where the
Thessalian
leader
Polypoites
is commemorated as
the
son
begotten
of
Hippodameia by
the
Lapith
king
Peirithoos
on
the
day
when he
chastised
the
monsters
and
drove
them from
Pelion.2 It
is to be noted that
in
neither of
these
two
instances
are
the
monsters called
by
their name
cEi'Tavpot;
they
are
spoken
of
only
as
mountain-haunting
brutes,
shaggy
brutes,
(i~pe
^
p
eoi•~OL,
4Opeq
XaXvTev7VreT.
n
the
Odyssey,
on the
other hand, the name
Kc'ravpot
is used in the only passage
where
they
are
mentioned,
which
is
in
the
warning
against
drunkenness
addressed
by
Antinoos
to the
disguised
Odysseus.3
As
the
story
is
there
told,
the feud is
not
in
the
first
instance
a
general
one
arising
at
the
wedding
feast between
the whole
troop
of
Centaurs
and
their
hosts,
but
a
consequence
of
the
individual
misconduct
of
one of
them,
Eurytion,
who
is
forth-
with
condignly
punished,
and
whose
punishment
excites
the
wrath of his fellow monsters. In the Hesiodic Shield of
Herakles,
not
the
battle
itself,
but the
representation
of it as
embossed
upon
the
imaginary
shield,
is
described
at
some
length;
the
Centaurs
being
called
by
their
name,
with
the
addition
of
proper
names
for the
individual combatants
on
either
side.4
A
fragment
of
Pindar
preserved
by
Athenaeus
relates
the
begin-
ning
of
the
brawl,
telling
how
on
the
broaching
of
wine
the
Centaurs thrust
away
the
milk that
had
been
set before
them,
and
seized the
wine
and were
driven
wild
by
it.5
Another
fragment
of the
same author
and
probably
from the
same
ode,
preserved
by
the
scholiast
on
Apollonios,
refers
to the incident
of
the
overwhelming
of
Kaineus,
the invulnerable
Lapith
hero,
with
rocks.6
These
are
all the
explicit
and
particular
references
to the
celebrated
strife
of
the
Centaurs
and
Lapithae
which
occur
in
the earlier Greek writers.
For
a
fuller
narrative
we
must
have
recourse to authorities of
later
date,
and
particularly
to
Ovid,
who
in
the twelfth book
of
the
Metamorphoses
ells the
story
with
amplifications
which run to the
length
of 350
1
11.
i.
262
sqq.
2
1.
ii.
741
sqq.
3
Od. xxi. 295.
4
lies.
Scut.
Herc.
128
sqq.,
see
below,
p.
161.
5
Pind.
ap.
Athen.
xii. 51
(Fr. 143,
ed.
Bergk).
1
Pind. Fr.
144,
ed.
Bergk.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
4/65
CENTAURS
IN GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
109
lines,
and
are
partly,
it is
evident,
borrowed
from some
Greek
original.1
Not
to
speak
of incidental
references,
the battle
is
also narrated
by
Plutarch,2
and
by
several of-the
mythographers
and
annalists,
particularly
Diodoros and
Apollodoros.3
For the
sculptors
and
painters
of the
great age
of
Greek
art
this
was the
central
episode
of the
Centaur
myth,
and
practically
put
its
other
episodes
out
of
sight.
The reason of
this
lay
in
the
lead taken
among
schools of
art
in
that
age
by
the
Athenian.
Populations
claiming
descent
from
Lapith princes
had
early
found
their
way
from
Thessaly
into
Attica,
where
they
had
settled in amity with the Ionian tribes. Hence the legend of
the
intimate
friendship
between the
Lapith
King,
Peirithoos,
and
the Athenian
hero,
Theseus.
In
the
mythic
rout of
the
Centaurs on
Mount
Pelion,
Theseus had
borne a
prominent
part
in
aid of
his friend
;
having
been,
according
to
the
common
account,
an invited
guest
at
the
feast,
but,
according
to
the
Herakleia
of
Herodoros,
having
only
come
to
the
help
of the
Lapithae
when the war was
already
raging.4
The
exploits
of
Theseus on this occasion, along with the same hero's overthrow
of
the
Amazons before
the
walls
of
the
Akropolis,
came to
be
thought
symbolical
of
the
historical victories of
Athenian
prowess
over
invading
barbarism.
Among
such
victories
it
is
expressly
commemorated
by
Isokrates.6 As treated in
art
by
Pheidias
and
his
contemporaries,
the
victories
of
Theseus over
the
Centaurs
and
the
Amazons
are
types,
of
which
the anti-
types
are
Marathon,
Salamis,
and
Plataiai.
Accordingly
we
find
the battle on Mount Pelion represented over and over
again
in
the
works
of
this
school;
among
monuments
still
extant,
in
the
frieze of the
supposed
Theseion
at
Athens,
in
that
of
the
temple
of
Apollo
at
Phigaleia,
in the
metopes
of
the
Parthenon,
and
in the
recently
recovered
pedimental
com-
position
of
Alkamenes
for
the
temple
of
Zeus at
Olympia:
among
recorded
monuments which have
perished,
in
the
paintings
of Mikon for
the
temple
of
Theseus,6
the reliefs round
the
edges
of
the
sandals of the
Athen6 Parthenos
of
Pheidias,7
1
Ov.
Met.
xii.
182-535.
2
Plut. Thes.
xxx.
s
Diod. iv.
13;
Apollod:
ii.
5,
4.
4
Plut.
Thes.,
loc.
cit.
5
Isokr.
on the
Kentauromachia of
Theseus,
Helena,
16;
on
the
Amazono-
machia,
Paneg.,
68,
70
;
Archid.
42;
Areop.,
75;
Panathen.,
193.
6
Paus.
iii.
18,
7.
7
Paus.
i.
17,
2.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
5/65
110
ON
REPRESENTATIONS OF
and those
said to have been
wrought
in
metal
by
Mys,
from
the
designs
of
Parrhasios,
for
the adornment
of the Athens
Promachos of the same master after his
death.1
But in the
art with
which
we
are here
concerned,
the art
of
vase-painting,
whether
in its
earlier
or later
stages,
this
particular
phase
of
our
myth
is
far
from
receiving
the
same exclusive
attention
as
from the
monumental
sculptors
and
painters
of the
age
of
Perikles.
The
potters
even
of
the
Athenian Kerameikos had
it
for
their
business,
not
especially
to
glorify
the ancestral
achievements
of their own
race,
but
to
provide
acceptable
wares
for sale in the markets of colonial settlements belonging to all
races
of the
Greeks,
as
well
as
in
those
of
foreign
communities,
and
particularly
of Etruria.
Accordingly
they
as
a
rule choose
for illustration
those
myths
or
portions
of
myths
which were
the
most
universally
current
in
Greek
popular
tradition.
Hence,
in relation
to the Centaur
myth,
the
particular
incident
most
flattering
to
Athenian
patriotism
receives at
their
hands
no
more
than a fair
proportional
share
of attention.
The most interesting representation of the battle on Mount
Pelion
is
that
given
on
the celebrated archaic
vase
bearing
the
names of the
potter Ergotimos
and
the
painter
Kleitias,
known
from the
name
of
its
discoverer
as
the
Franqois
vase,2
and
preserved
in the
Etruscan Museum
at Florence.
In this
quaint
and
elaborate
early pictorial
epitome
of
popular
mythology,
of
which
the
scenes
are
packed
as
closely
as
possible
in bands
or
tiers one
above
another,
the
strife between
Lapithae
and
Centaurs occupiesa band
on the neck
of the
vase;
a
place
where
it
not
infrequently
occurs
again
in
vases
of
some
centuries
later
date, when,
after
the
intervening
periods
of the
Rigid
and
the
Perfect
styles,
the
fashion
of
decorating
the surface
with
numerous
superimposed
scenes
returns
in the so-called
Rich
style
of
the
decadence.
In
the
Frangois
vase,
where
almost
every
personage
and
every
object
is
identified
by
an
inscription
in
a
primitive
Attic
alphabet,
the
Lapith
and
Centaur
com-
batants
are
severally
named;
their
names
tallying
so
closely
with
those
given
by
Hesiod as to make it clear that the poet and the
vase-painter
had
in their
minds
an
identical version
of the
story.
Theseus
is
present,
and the
incident
of the
overwhelming
of
1
Paus.
i.
28,
2.
2
Mon.
dedl'
Inst.
iv.
pl. 56;
Arch.
Zeitung,
1850,
pl.
23.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
6/65
CENTAURS
IN GREEK VASE-PAINTING.
111
Kaineus
is
prominent.
In
less
primitive
ware,
where
the
system
of decoration
no
longer
admits
the
crowding
of
minute
figures,
the battle is
generally
represented
by
single
episodes-the
rescue
of the
bride,
the
overwhelming
of
Kaineus,
or a
single
combat
between
a
Centaur
and
a
Greek.
A fine
example
is a krater
of
the Free
style
at the
British
Museum,
where
on one side
two
Cen-
taurs
precipitate
rocks
upon
Kaineus,
while
a
Lapith
strikes
at
a
third
monster
who on
the other side
drives the
sharp
butt of
an
uprooted
tree into
the
breast
of his
comrade.1
Generally,
when
a
Centaur
is
represented
wielding
his
accustomed
weapons
of
branch and boulder against a Greek hero who is not recognizable
as
Herakles,
or
against
two
together,
(and
such
representations
occur in
all
periods
of the
art),
we
may
consider
that
the
enemy
figured
is
Theseus,
or
Theseus
with
Peirithoos,
and
that
the
battle
in
question
is the battle
on Mount Pelion.
So,
too,
where
a
Centaur
in the
act of
carrying
off
a
woman is
assailed
by
a hero-
again
not
definitely
identified
as
Herakles.
Some-
times,
in vases of
the
Perfect
style,
the incidents
of
this
battle
on Mount Pelion are brought within the cycle of properly
palaestric
representations,
and the enemies who
contend
against
the
monsters are not warriors
using
the
weapons
of
warfare,
or
snatching
up
for their
defence,
in
accordance with
the
ancient
texts,
the furniture of
the
feast,2
but
athletes,
wearing
the
usual
band
about
their
hair,
and
putting
forth the
regular
skill
of
the boxer
or
pankratiast.3
But
as
none
of
our
three
present
illustrations
have
reference
to' this
particular
subject,
we
need
not here discuss
it
farther.
2. The encounter
of
Herakles
and
the
Centaurs on
Mount
PholoW
n
Arcadia;
when
the
good
Centaur
Pholos
entertained
Herakles
at his
cave,
setting
roast meat
before
his
guest
while
he
supped
on raw
himself,
but
saying
that he
feared
to
open
the
store
jar
where
the
Centaurs
kept
their
wine;
which
however,
at
the
instance of
Herakles,
he
presently opened;
and
the
other
Centaurs
thereupon
gathering
about the
cave
armed
with
rocks
and
boughs,
Herakles slew the
first
who
entered with
brands
plucked
from
the
fire,
and
pursued
the rest with his arrows as
1
Cat.
of
Vases
in
Brit.
Mus.,
ii.
no.
1266.
2
Especially
Ov.
Metam.
xii.
.235
sqq,
3
See
particularly
the fine
example
at
Florence
(Heydemann,
Die
Antiken-
sammlungen Mittelitaliens,
Florence,
p.
86,
no.
16,
and
pl.
iii.
no.
1.)
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
7/65
112
ON REPRESENTATIONSOF
far as
Cape
Malea,
where
Cheiron,
having
been
driven
by
the
Lapithae
from
Mount
Pelion,
had at
that
time
his
refuge.
This
adventure was
sometimes
regarded
as one of
the
greater
&OXa
of
Herakles,
but
more
usually
as
a
'Wrdpepyov
o80
happening
in
the
course of the
labour
of the
Erymanthian
boar.
From
Thessaly,
it
seems,
the Centaur
myth
had
been
transplanted
to
the
Peloponnesos;
from the
mountain-range
of Pelion to
the
mountain-range
of
Pholo6,
between Elis
and
Arcadia;
or
else
it
had
sprung up
there
also
in the
natural course
of
things,
as
being a myth of the mountains common from the earliest times
to
various
races
of the
Greeks.
The two
legends
are
closely
associated;
the name of Pholos sometimes
appearing
also
in
the
list
of
Thessalian
Centaurs;
and
Cheiron
in his turn
being
sometimes
represented
as
associated
with
Pholos
in
offering
hospitality
to
Herakles,
or
again,
as
meeting
his
death
during
the
pursuit
from
PholoB
to
Cape
Malea.
The
ordinary
account is
that
the
Arcadian
horde consisted
of
fugitives
from the rout
on
Pelion; but a reverse relation between the two branches of the
story
seems
also
to
have been
alleged
(see
Schol. II.
i.
266).
The
Arcadian
Centaurs
are,
like the
Thessalian,
the children
of
Nephele,
a
savage
and
unapproachable
horde,
untameable in
lust,
ungovernable
at the
taste
or
smell
of
wine,
subsisting upon
the raw
flesh of
animals
of the
chase,
and
accustomed to
descend
from their mountain solitudes
to
ravage
the
adjacent
country,
armed
always
either
with masses
of
rock
or
with
severed branches or uprooted trunks of pines. And as in the
Thessalian
legend
there exists
along
with this
savage
horde
the
one humane
and
wise
Centaur
Cheiron,
so
in
the Arcadian
legend
there exists
the
good
Centaur
Pholos;
not
indeed,
like
Cheiron,
a
trainer
of
heroes and husband
and sire
of
beautiful
nymphs,
but mild and
companionable,
the
host
and
friend
of
Herakles,
by
whose inadvertence
(again
like
Cheiron)
he
at last
meets
his
death. It is
Herakles,
the
hero of
all
Greeks
in
common,
but
the favourite
hero of the
Dorians,
who
in
this
phase
of the
myth
takes the
place
of Theseus and his Thessalian
allies.
The
earliest
literary
allusion
to the
story
which
has reached
us is
in
a
fragment
of Stesichoros
preserved
by
Athenaeus,
where
the
huge cup
handed
to
Herakles
by
Pholos
is
described
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
8/65
CENTAURS
IN GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
113
as
a
oa6besov
....
..w
ra
eplevrpov
cc
rptXciyvvov.1
The
legend
of
Herakles
and Pholos is not
mentioned in
Homer,
Hesiod, or Pindar. We know, however, that it had early
entered
into
the
current
conception
of
the
popular
hero's
history.
There
is
good
reason
to
suppose
that it was included
in
the
narratives
of the
two
poets,
Peisandros of
Kameiros
and
Panyasis
of
Halikarnassos,
who are known
to have treated
that
history
in
epic
form,
the former
in
the seventh
and the
latter
in
the
fifth
century
B.C.;
as
well
as
in
the
prose
chronicle
of
Herodoros,
a
contemporary
of
Hekataios.
'HpaK
Xle
6
rapa
doXc was the title of a comedy by Epicharmos,2 and the sub-
ject
had no doubt been
before
his time embodied
in some of
the
satyric
shows
and
maskings
common
among populations
of
Dorian
race. It was
figured
in archaic works
of art like
the
Amyklaean
throne8
and the chest
of
Kypselos.4
We
cannot
tell whether
Quintus
Smyrnaeus,
imitating
the manner
of
Homer about
the fifth
century
of
our
own
era,
is
writing
out
of his
own
head,
or
repeating
some ancient
epic
pro-
totype,
or
using
materials
supplied by
the later
mythographers,
when
he describes the labours
of
Herakles
wrought
in relief
on
the shield
of
Eurypylos,
and
among
them
his
adventure
with
the
Centaurs,
'when wine and the
spirit
of
strife
stirred
up
those
monsters
to
fight against
him at
the house
of
Pholos.'
Some,
says
the
poet,
were shown
prostrate upon
the
pines
which
they
grasped
in
their
hands;
others still
carry-
ing
on the
fight
with
the
like
weapons.5
Among
the Attic
tragedians,
this
exploit
is
mentioned
in the
Trachiniai
of
Sophokles,"
and thrice in the
Frenzy
of
Herakles of
Euripides,
once
by
Amphitryon,
once
by
the
chorus,
and
once
by
the
hero
himself.7
Readers will
also
be
familiar
with the allusion
at the
end of
the
Thalusia
of
Theokritos,
in
which Cheiron
is
directly
associated
with Pholos
as
being
present
and
offering
the wine
to
Herakles.8 Other allusions
are
frequent
in
later writers.
1
Stesich.
ap.
Athen.
Deipnos.,
xi.
499 A.
2
Bernhardy, Grundr. der Griech.
Lit.,
2te
Bearb.,
pt.
ii.
vol.
ii.
p.
463,
464.
3
Paus.
iii.
18,
10.
4
Paus.
v.
19,
2.
roleidopvra e
&vSpa
KeCrad'povs,
robs
E
Kial&QreKlC7voda
abV'rT,
cjjAa HpaKXAa
re
r•v
rotedov'a,
Kal 'HpaKACovlsfva rbgpyov.
6 Quint. Smyrn. Posthom. vi. 273
sqq.
6
Soph.
Trach. 1095
sqq.
7
Eur.
Here.
Fur. 181
sqq.,
864
sqq.,
1271
sqq.
8
Theokr.
Idyl.
vii. 149.
H.
S.--VOL.
I.
I
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
9/65
114
ON
REPRESENTATIONS OF
Lucian
expressly
refers to the
attitude
in
which
painters
were
accustomed
to
represent
Herakles
and Pholos
reclining
together
after the meal.' Philostratos in the
'Hpwoc6c
adds a
curious
touch
when
he makes
the
vine-dresser
enlightened
by
inter-
course with the shade of Protesilaos
quote,
as
a
proof
of
the
antiquity
of
poetry,
the lines
said to
have
been
affixed
by
Herakles himself to
the
corpse
of
the
Centaur
Asbolos
when he
hung
it
up
as a
prey
for the crows after the
battle
:_-2
"AapoXoc
oi're
OCev
TrpopIe'Cov
7rtv
ot~r'
av6pro.)'v
(V/oV6Lotope/aar•o7 d7r' EX
7eo' [?]
Kareb re/
•aEyet/.tat
ya
aEITrvov
a.•eTpo/lot4
IopdaiooWv.
But
for an
explicit
narration of the adventure and
its
sequel
we
must
again go
to the
annalists
and
mythographers,
Apollodoros,3
Diodoros,4
and
latest
of
all
Tzetzes.5
Diodoros
in
this con-
nection uses
a
phrase
concerning
the
Centaurs
which
is
contrary
to
the usual
way
of
speaking
about
them.
Savage
senselessness
was
a
part
of their
accepted
character: the
saying
voD)
ob
rraph
fevravpowtr
having been supposed to come down from Peisan-
dros.
But
Diodoros,
for the
greater
renown of
Herakles,
re-
presents
his
antagonists
as
adding
skill
and
sense to
their
other
advantages:
tt
ryAp
tacywvi'eo-at
7rpo'
o4
v
arro
d
v
rTpp~"
9Opa%,
,7k'ctpiaV
TE
Kc ~
VEYL
0ov7a'
avi~pw
v.
Apollodoros
is
particular
about
the
names
of the
two
assailants of the
hero,
Anchios and
Agrios,
who
first came
on
and
were
first
slain.
Tzetzes,
on
the other
hand,
makes Asbolos
the
original aggressor
and
inciter of the
rest;
hence
his
gibbeting;
which
Tzetzes,
with
especial praise
to Herakles
for
his
verses,
recites
apparently
after
Apollodoros.
With
the
vase-painters,
and
especially
the
archaic
vase-
painters
or
those
who imitated
the
archaic,
painting
in
the
Rigid
style
with black
figures
on a
yellow
or
red
ground,
the
exploits
of
the
popular
hero Herakles were at
all
times favourite
subjects;
and
not the least favourite was his
exploit
at the
cave
of Pholos.
The representations hitherto known divide themselves into two
classes:
one
(a)
in
which
is
depicted
the welcome of
Herakles
I
Lucian,
Symp.
13,
14.
2
Philostr.
Heroic.
p.
328.
s
Apollod.
ii.
5,
4.
4
Diod.
iv. 13.
5
Tzetz. Chil.
v.
111-137.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
10/65
CENTAURS
IN GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
115
by
Pholos;
the other
(b)
the attack
by
the
Centaurs,
their
repulse
and
pursuit.
The
industry
of
Dr.
Stephani1
has
collected
thirty-one known examples of group a, and fourteen of group b.
In
group
a
twenty-eight
are
of
archaic
or
pseudo-archaic ware,
and
three
only
of the Free
style.
In
group
b,
eleven
are
archaic
or
pseudo-archaic,
and three
again
free. The
representations
are not
strictly
uniform
in either
class. In
group
a
the
huge
7rtOoT
or stone
jar
usually
occupies
the
middle
place,
on
one
side
of which stands
Herakles,
and on the
other
Pholos,
some-
times seen
emerging
from
his
cave,
which
is
represented
as
a
black mass seen in profile and projecting towards the top--the
Xdtvov
ivTrpov
f Theokritos.
Sometimes
they
shake
hands
over
the
jar,
as
in a vase
at the
British
Museum,2
and
sometimes
merely
converse,
as
in one at
Berlin.3
In
these
cases the
7rl'Oo
is
often
represented
as
covered
by
a
great
lid,
painted
white.
Sometimes
this
lid has been
or is
being
removed,
either
by
a
Centaur
or
by
Herakles
himself,
and
in one
enigmatical
instance
Herakles
is
lifting up,
instead of the
lid,
an
unexplained
elongated object resembling
a human
mummy
with a
snake
at
its
middle.4?
Sometimes
again
Herakles
is
stooping
over
the
opened
,rlOog,
and
dipping
into
it
with a
smaller
vessel,
cia'vOapoq,
AiaOoo,
or
olvoXo'n.
Lastly,
three
vases
depict
the
scene
at
the
point
where,
according
to the
passage
of
Lucian
above
mentioned,
it was
commonly
represented
in the
regular
works of
painting,
i.e.
when Herakles
and
Pholos
are
amicably reclining
at
the
feast.5
Occasionally
one
Centaur,
or
more,
is
present
besides
Pholos,
and
occasionally
the
personage
either of
guest
or
of
host is
missing,
although
the scene is otherwise identified.
Passing
to
group
2
b,
in which
the
violence
and
rout
of
the
Centaurs
are
exhibited,
we find
that the actual
scene of
the con-
flict
is
only
in
one of
the instances
collected
by
Dr.
Stephani
indicated
by
the
presence
of
the
7rt0oq.'
The
number of
the
monsters
put
to
flight
by
Herakles
varies
from
two,
the
1
Compte
Rendu,
etc.
1873,
p.
90
sqq.
and
pl.
v.
2
Cat.of
Vases n the British Museum,
661.
3
Gerhard, Auserlesene
Vasenbilder,
pl.
119,
7;
see
also
nos.
3 and 5
of the
same
plate.
4
Compte.
Rendu, etc.,
1873,
pl.
iv.
;
and
see
Stephani,
loc.
cit.
6
Stephani,
loc.
cit.
nos.
5;
11; 17,
=
resp.
Jahn,
Vasens.
KOnigs
Ludwigs,
661
;
ArchGol.
Zeitung,
1865,
pl.
201
;
Gerhard,
Auserl.
Vasenb.
ii.
p.
128,
note 24
e.
6
Mus.
Greg.
ii.
pl.
39.
i2
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
11/65
116
ON REPRESENTATIONS
OF
commonest
number,
to
eight,
and
in
one of
the
richest and
most
spirited examples
of
the
archaic
style
amounts to
six.'
In
some instances
Herakles
appears
not
alone,
but in
company
with
his
friend
Iolaos;
and
in
one
at
least,
that
of
the
Berlin vase
last
mentioned,
there
is
also
present
his
patron
goddess
Athen6,
whom,
together
with
Hermes,
it is the custom of
the
early
vase-
painters
frequently
to
represent
as
standing
by
this
hero
in the
performance
of his
labours.
Lastly,
a
small
number
of vases
represent
isolated
encounters
of Herakles
with individual
Centaurs
after the
dispersal
of the horde
;
and
there are a
few
more
depicting
similar actions in which no attribute or
cog-
nizance enables
us
to tell whether
the victorious
hero
is Herakles
or Theseus.
To
the
list
of Pholos illustrations
briefly
reviewed
above,
I
am
now
enabled,
by
the kindness of
my
friend,
the
distinguished
French
archaeologist,
Mons.
O. Rayet,
to
add
another from
a
vase
in
his
possession
(see
Plate
I.),
which
differs
from those
hitherto
known both
by
its
greater
antiquity
and
its
greater
comprehensiveness; inasmuch as it belongs to quite the most
primitive
period
of
Greek
mythologic
art,
and
unites features
hitherto
only
found
apart
in
the several
classes
2
a
and
2
b. We
will return to its examination as
soon
as
we
have
briefly
gone
over
the
remaining
Centaur
subjects
known
to the
vase-painter.
3.
The
outrage
attempted by
Nessos on
Deianeira;
when
Herakles,
having
in conflict
with
Acheloos won
the hand of
Deianeira,
daughter
of
Oeneus
king
of
Kalydon,
comes with
her to a swollen ford of the Euenos where the Centaur Nessos
acts
as
ferryman;
to whom
Herakles
confides his
wife,
but
who
attempts
violence
to
her
on the
passage;
whereupon
the
hero
slays
him with
an
arrow,
but
not before
he
has
had
time
to
give
Deianeira
a
philtre
of
the issue
of
his
wounds,
which
is
destined
afterwards
to
prove
fatal to her
lord.
Classing
this
well-known
subject
as 3
a,
we
may
annex to it
as
3
b
a
kindred
representation
from
which
it
is
sometimes
nearly
indistinguishable; viz.,
the chastisement
by
Herakles of a
similar
outrage
attempted
near Olenos
in the
Peloponnesos
by
another
Centaur,
variously
named
Eurytion,
Monychos,
or
Dexamenos,
upon
another
lady
variously
named
Deianeira,
'
Gerhard,
Auserl.
Vasenb.
pl.
119,
1.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
12/65
CENTAURS IN
GREEK VASE-PAINTING.
117
MnesimachB,
Hippolyt6
the affianced
bride
of
Azan,
or
Alkyon6
the
daughter
of
Eurystheus.
In either
case the
offending
monster is
spoken
of as one
escaped
from the
slaughter
of his
comrades
either
in
the
Thessalian
conflict
on Mount
Pelion
or in
the Arcadian conflict
on
Mount
Pholo6.
The
earliest
mention
of the
Nessos
story
which
has
reached us
is
taken from
a
lost
poem
of
Archilochos,
where
the
poet
was blamed
for
making
Deianeira
address
a
lengthened
plaint
to
Herakles
at
the
moment
of the
outrage.'
The
story
is
told,
as
is
well
known,
at full
length by
Deianeira
herself
in the
Trachiniai
of
Sophokles,2
and
again by Ovid3 and Seneca,4as well as, in terms almost identical
with one
another,
by
the
annalists
Diodoros5
and
Apollodoros;
besides
allusions too
numerous
to
catalogue.
Among
the
gallery
of
pictures
described
or
imagined
by
the
younger
Philostratos,
is
one
representing
this
subject
with
features which we
find
actually
existing
in a mural
painting
of
Pompeii.7
In
vase-paintings
the
subject
is common
enough.
One
good
archaic
example
at
the
British
Museum8
is
identified
by
inscriptions giving
the
names of the personages, and others are not uncommon. Some-
times
additional
personages,
as
the father of
the
outraged lady,
and
Hermes
or
Athena,
or
both,
stand
by.
When
the
lady
is
seated for the
passage
on
the
back of the
Centaur,
and
when
Herakles
employs
against
him the bow
and
arrows
required
by
the
story,
there
can be
no
doubt
that
the incident
represented
is that at
the
ford
of
the
Euenos.
When,
on
the
other
hand,
as
in a
fine
example
at the
British
Museum,
Herakles
uses
not
his bow,but his club; especially if at the same time the Centaur,
instead of
conveying
the
lady
on his
back,
has seized
and
is
carrying
her
violently
off;
and
if a smaller
or
greater
number
of
unexplained
additional
personages
appear;
then
we
may
infer
that
the
subject
of
the
illustration
is
one
of those
independent
stories
to
which
allusion
has
already
been made.9
These stories
are
confused
enough, especially
from
the
way
in which
the
name
Dexamenos occurs
in them.
This
1
Bergk. Poet. lyr., Archil. Fr. 147.
2
Soph.
Trach.
555-557.
3
Ov. Met. ix.
98,
sqq.
;
Heroid.
ix.
141.
4
Seneca,
Herc.
Oet.
500,
sqq.
"
Diod. iv.
36.
Apollod.
ii.
7,
6.
7
Mus. Borbon. vi. 36.
8
Hancarville,
Ant.
Etr.
iv.
pl.
31
Cat.
of
Vases
in
the British
Museum
vol.
i.
932.
9 Apollod.
ii.
5,
5;
Diod.
iv.
33
Pedias. de
Herc.
labor.
5;
Paus. vii.
18,
1;
Hyg.
fab.
31,
33.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
13/65
118 ON
REPRESENTATIONS
F
word
would
naturally
signify
the 'host' or
'entertainer,'
i.e.
of
Herakles,
and
sometimes seems
to be
merely
another
name
for
Oeneus,
the Aetolian
king
and father of Deianeira. In
Pausanias, Diodoros,
and
Apollodoros,
the name
is
given
to
a
king
of
Olenos
in
Achaia;
according
to Diodoros
it
is the
daughter
of this
king,
Hippolyt6,
whom
the
hero
saves from
insult
by
the Centaur
Eurytion
at
her
marriage
with
Azan,
or
Axas;
according
to
Apollodoros,
his
daughter
Mnesimach8
whom
the
hero
saves
at her father's
request
from
a
forced
marriage
with
the same
Eurytion.
In
all
these
stories
we
may
recognise
the
attempts of the populations of the border-land of Elis and
Achaia to
appropriate
to
their
own
country fragments
both
of
the
original
Thessalian
legend
of
Eurytion
and
the bride of
Peirithoos,
and
of
the
original
Aetolian
legend
of Nessos
and
Deianeira.
That such
attempts
were current
as
early
as the
sixth
century
we can tell
from
the
account
attributed to
Bacchylides
by
the
scholiast
on
Od. xxii.
295;1
and
they
are
not
without their reflection
in
the
art of
the
vase-painters.
When, indeed, we find the name Dexamenos transferred in one
instance
by
a
vase-painter
and
in
another
by
a
scholiast to
the
offending
Centaur
himself,
we
can
only
suppose
a
confusion,
originating
probably
in the
carelessness of
artists and
reacting
upon
that of
commentators.2
In
connection
with two
polychrome
vases,
one
of
them
of
extraordinary
richness,
found
in
the
Crimea
and
representing
a
damsel in
the
grasp
of a
Centaur,
an
avenging
IHerakles,
various
bystanders,
and
two ErOtes
in the air
above,
Dr.
Stephani
has
again
collected and
discussed,
perhaps
with some
over-refinement
of
ingenuity
and
learning,
all the
evidence available for
the
illustration
of this
subject.3
To his
discussion of
the
matter,
as
it
is
not
touched
in
any
of our
present
illustrations,
we
must
refer
the
reader;
passing
on to
4. The
winning
and
wedding of
Thetis
by
Peleus;
when
Cheiron
taught
that
hero
how
to
overcome
the wiles
by
which
the
goddess sought
to
elude
him,
and
afterwards bade them to
their wedding feast at his home in the Pelethronian cave.
Among
the
early
Greek
epics
the
Kypria
of Stasinos was
1
Bergk,
Poet.
lyr. Bacchyl.
Fr. 60.
Schol.
ad.
Callim. Hymn.
in
Del.
102;
and the
inscription
on the
Naples
vase,
Mus. Borb.
vol. v.
pl.
5.
3
Compte
Rendn,
etc.,
1865.
p.
102,
sqq.,
and
pl.
iv.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
14/65
CENTAURS IN GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
119
that
which
recounted the
infancy
and
early days
of
Achilles.
It is a
disputed
point
whether
the
wooing
and
winning
of
his
mother Thetis
by
his father Peleus was in that
body
of
poetry
narrated
in
full,
or
only by
way
of
allusion.'
A
nuptial
song
of
Peleus
and
Thetis
is
enumerated
among
the
lost
works
of
Hesiod,
and
may perhaps
have formed
part
of
the
KaTrdXoyoq
yvvatIcAv
or
the
'HoZat;
2
from it
Catullus
is
by
some
writers
supposed
to
have
taken the materials for
his
famous
Epithala-
mium.
Pindar,
who
in his
task
of
enumerating
the
family
glories
of
his
aristocratic
contemporaries
has
occasion
over
and
over again to tell of the training of their ancestral heroes by
Cheiron,
alludes several times to the
capture
by
Peleus of
his
ocean
bride
according
to the instructions
of
that
teacher."
In
the
Iliad
there
are
allusions
of
Thetis
herself,
of
Achilles,
and
of
Hera,
to
her
marriage
with
Peleus,4
as
well
as
others
to
the
present
given
by
the
gods
at
the
wedding-feast,5
and
two,
in
identical
words,
to
the
present
of
the
mighty
spear
given
by
Cheiron
himself,
the
'fyXoq
/p8i'
pLya
--aya
0
apdiv
7-P
0P
o
8'var'
6iXXol
'AXaL6v
7raXXXEv,
'XX
/Av
olo
0e7rU"aT7T
wXu
'AXLXXed9,
1117Xt6&ta
/EXt7Jl,
7v
7ra7pt c0/X(5
tvopeE
Xeipov
I-IlXov
dic
copylp(0 E0vov L.eva
?'
;lpdeo'a-V."
Euripides
in
the
Iphigeneia
in
Aulis
tells
explicitly
of
the
marriage
and
its
circumstances
;'
the
meeting
of the
hero
with
the
goddess,
and her
magic
transformations,
are
told
by
Ovid
in the Metamorphoses
8
and the whole story, including the point
about
the
assistance of
Cheiron,
by
Apollodoros.9
The
subject,
for the
purposes
of
pictorial
representation,
divides itself
into
4
a,
the
seizure
of
Thetis
by
Peleus,
and
4
b,
the
marriage.
The former
was,
we
know,
represented
on
the
chest
of
Kypselos,
and
it
is a
peculiarly
favourite
subject
with
the
1
See
Bergk
in
Zeitschr.
fiir
Alter-
thumwissenschaft,
1850,
p.
406,
sqq.,
Welcker, Der epischeCyclus, ii. pp. 92,
132;
and on
the
other
side
Overbeck,
Bildwerkle zum
theb. u. troisch.
Hel-
denkreis,
pp.
171,
172.
2
See
Overbeck,
op.
cit.
p.
172,
note
3,
and
Markscheffel,
De
Catalogo
t
Eois.
8
Pind.
Nem.
iii.
56,
95,
iv.
60-68,
Isthm. viii.
59-143.
4
II.
xviii.
84,
432,
xxiv.
59.
5
17. xvi. 867, xvii. 195, 443.
6
11.
xvi.
140,
sqq.
xix.
387,
sqq.
7
Eur.
Iph.
in Aul.
700-707,
1036-
1080.
8
Ov.
Met.
xi.
220-265.
9
Apollod.
iii.
13,
5.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
15/65
120
ON
REPRESENTATIONS
F
vase-painters.
Sometimes
it
is
represented
with
and
sometimes
without
the
incidents of
transformation;
these,
when
they
occur,
being
symbolically suggested by
the addition of a
snake,
lion,
or
chimaera,
severally
or
all
together,
contiguous
to
some
part
of
the
person
of Thetis.
Both modes
of
treatment
occur
in
vases
alike
of
the
early
or
black-figured
and
of the later
or
red-figured
style.
Prof.
Overbeck
in
1857
counted
eighteen
of
the
former
and
twenty
of
the
latter,'
without, however,
claiming
completeness
for
his
list;
to
which
would
now have
to
be
added at
least
one
signal example
of the
treatment
without
transformations,in the shape of the famous Kameiros vase at
the
British
Museum,
one
of
the most beautiful
extant
examples
of
the later
polychrome style.
In
these
representations
the
presence
of
the
Centaur
Cheiron,
indicating
by
means
of
his
physical
7rapdo-ra-crt
he
fact
of
his
counsel and
countenance
in
the
undertaking,
is
frequent,
but
by
no means
constant,
even
when
a
considerable number
of
nymphs
and other
accessory
per-
sonages,
as
Eros,
Peitho,
and the
like,
is introduced.
Well-
known examples of the black-figured style are the scene on an
amphora
from
Vulci,
now
at
Munich,2
and of
the
red-figured
style
that
on
the lid of a
lekaQn
at
Naples.3
4
b,
the
marriage
of the hero
and
goddess
at
the home
of
Cheiron,
is a
subject
of not
nearly
so
frequent
occurrence
as
the
last.
In
it
the
presence
of Cheiron
is
naturally
indispensable.
By
far
the
most
important example
is
that
on the
Franqois-vase
already
so
often
mentioned.
Here the
veiled
bride is
seen
sitting
within a
temple
or
sanctuary,
before
which
stands
Peleus
receiving
the
procession
of
divinities
who
has come
to do
honour
to his
nuptials,
and
foremost
among
them
Cheiron;
who
walks
step
by
step
with
Iris,
followed
by
his
wife Chariklo
along
with
Hestia and
Demeter,
after
whom
comes
Dionysos,
then
the
Hours,
and
then
the
long
file of Muses
and
of
Gods.
Another
and
later
vase
shows the same event
in a much
simpler
and
more
compendious
form:
Cheiron
half
emerging
from his
cave,
and
holding
out an
arm
to
welcome
Peleus,
who,
bearing
two
spears
in his left
hand,
with his
right
leads
along
the downcast Thetis.
1
Overbeck,
Bildwerkce,
tc.,
p.
172-
197.
2
Gerh.
Auserl.
Vasenb.
pl.
227,
Overbeck,
Heroisch.
Bildw.,
pl.
vii.
no.
5.
3
Mon. dell'
Inst.
i.
pl.
4;
Over-
beck,
op.
cit.
pl.
viii.
no.
4.
4
Inghirami,
Mus.
Chiusino,
i.
pl.
46,
47;
Overbeck,
op.
cit.
pl.
viii.
no. 6.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
16/65
CENTAURS IN GREEK
VASE-PAINTING.
121
Our
own
Cheiron illustration
deals not
with
this
but
with a
later
stage
of
his relations to
Peleus,
viz.:-5. The
bringing
of
Achilles
to the cave
of
Cheiron;
when
Peleus at
the desire of
Thetis,
who
is
constrained
by
destiny
to
leave
him,
takes
their
child
Achilles
to
receive
from
the
wise
Centaur
the
training
of
a
hero.
The
nurture of
Achilles
by
Cheiron
in the Pelethronian
cave
is
a
constant
feature
in the
traditions
concerning
that
hero.
The
account of
it was
probably
incorporated
in
the same
body
of
epic
poetry,
the
JKypria,
o
which
we
have
referred;
though
we
cannot tell from what precise sources the Roman poet Statius
drew
the materials for the detailed
recital which
fills
the
opening
part
of
his
unfinished Achilleis. In
the
Iliad
allusion
is made
to
the
drugs
of which
Achilles
had
learned
the use from
this
master,
and which he
had
given
to
Patroklos,
whom the
wounded
Eurypylos
asks
to
apply
them:-
erl
a'rta
bdppaica
rawo-e,
dco=X,
Va
Pe
7rpot0ri
aTrv 'AXtXX3ov SetXs6at,
8v
Xedpov
d41&afe
&Scaewra7o9
Kevrapwcv.
Pindar,
on his
part,
after
celebrating
the
exercise
in
javelin-
play,
boar-hunting,
and
lion-hunting
in
which
Cheiron
'practises
the
youth
of
Achilles,
goes
on to
speak
of
his
tutorship
of
the
child in
the same
breath
as
of
his
good
offices
at the
marriage
of
his
rother
:--
vv•/4Eve v
'aDrt7
&yXadKapWov
Nfpeo9
OBryaTpa,70vov Td
ol cpraTov
a7i7-aXXev
ev
dP1ap'votot
rraad0va
OvaL6vY
1cOw.
For
the
rest,
the
description
in
Statius and
the brief
account
in
Apollodoros8
are
our
principal
extant
sources. It
is a
curious
fact
that
among
the
whole
catalogue
of
other
heroes
recorded as
having
shared
the
education of
Cheiron,
as
Jason,
Asklepios,
Telamon,
and a
dozen
more,4
Achilles
is
the
only
one
recognized
in
extant
works of
painting.
There
is
among
the
e•icvev
of
the
elder Philostratus an elaborate
description
of an
'AXLXXEIo
rpocal;
5
and
the
subject,
especially
one
particular
presentment
1
11.
xi.
832.
*
Pind.
Nerm.
ii.
75-100
*
Apollod.
ii.
13,
6.
4
See,
e.g.,
Pindar,
loc.
cit.,
and
especially
Xenophon,
Cyneget.
1.
5
Philostr.
1magg.
ii.
2.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
17/65
122
ON
REPRESENTATIONS
OF
of
it,
with
Cheiron
seated on his
hind
legs
like
a
dog,
and
teaching
Achilles
the
use
of
the
lyre,
is
well
known
froim
a
Pompeian wall-painting'
and from
gems.
By
the vase-
painters,
on the
other
hand,
the
life
or
exercises
of Achilles
with
Cheiron
are
never
represented.
Nor
do
they
show
any
hint
of
such
a
subject
as that
recorded
by
Pausanias
to have
been
figured
on
the chest
of
Kypselos:
the
visit,
namely, paid
by
Cheiron
from
his
home
among
the immortals
to the Greek
camp
at
Troy
in
order
to
console
Achilles
after he had
lost
Patroklos.
They
take
only
this
single
scene
of
the
hero's
introduction to the master as a child by his father Peleus,
accompanied
sometimes
by
his
mother
Thetis.
Prof.
Over-
beck
in
1857
was able
to count
six,
and
fully
to describe
three,
vases
bearing
this
representation.2
In one Peleus
strides
hastily
forward,
carrying
the child
on
his
arm,
towards
the
Centaur,
who advances
to meet
him;
behind
Peleus
stands
Thetis,
behind
Cheiron the
nymphs,
his
mother,
daughter,
and
wife.
In
another Achilles is
older,
and
stands
on
the
ground
lifting his left hand either in salutation to his new master or
in
surprise
at
his
monstrous
shape,
and
in
his
right
holding
what seems to be
a
hoop.
In a third
Achilles
holds
out
both
arms
towards
Cheiron,
while
on
one
side
Thetis
is
standing
beside
the chariot
of
Peleus.
Another vase
representing
the
same
subject
was
bought
two
years
ago
for
the
Louvre
(see
Fig.
4).
Another,
formerly
in the
Blacas
collection,
is
in
the
British
Museum,
and is
reproduced
in
our
Plate
II.
Besides
these five
regular
classes of
Centaur
representations,
illustrating
stock
incidents of
the
myth
such
as first
the
epic
and afterwards
the
lyric poets
had made
universally
familiar,
we
may distinguish
two minor and
supplementary
groups,
viz.:
6.
Centaurs
n
the
character
of
hunters.
This
is an
aspect
in
which the monsters
are commemorated
over
and
over
again
by
literature.
Cheiron,
as
we have
seen,
is
expressly
called
by
Pindar
077p
d7yporepoq,
and
among
the
exercises
in which he
trains
the
young
Achilles
is the
hunting
of
boars
and
lions.3
In
like mannerPhilostratos, in summing up the virtues of Cheiron-
0,lpa9
7
y••
p
7ro•xcktXl
if•rreo
e...
Xenophon
had
put
1
Zahn,
Die
merkwiirdigsten
Orna-
mente,
&c.,
iii.
pl.
32.
2
Overbeck,
op.
cit.
pp.
281-284.
See also
Collignon.
P3 ind.
Nerm.
ii.
46.
"
Philostr.
Heroic,
p.
308.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
18/65
CENTAURS
N
GREEKVASE-PAINTING. 123
the
name of
Cheiron,
and the list
of
his
pupils,
at
the
head
of
his own
treatise on
the
chase.
Statius,
following
probably
some Greek
authority,
contrasts the
peaceable
avocations of
the
chase,
as
followed
by
Cheiron,
with
the
wars and
brawlings
of
his
fellow-monsters:
-.
at intra
Centauri stabula
alta
patent,
non
aequa
nefandis
fratribus;
hic
hominum
nullos
experta
cruores
spicula,
nec
truncae bellis
genialibus
orni,
aut
consanguineos
fracti crateres
in
hostes,
sed pharetrae insontes et inania terga ferarum.1
But of
the
Centaurs
of Arcadia
no
less,
we are
told
by
Oppian
how
they
were
wont
to
catch their
supper
along
the
slopes
of
windy
PholoB:--
da
"b0
1
67ar
cIoXo',q
veLw3E09
(?p0
a
ciAa
Oflpo/Jury/j,
, pO7rWov
ev 6r
1
va9,
L?
OE, v
6S
'rr•o
ov
l7LOt/pOTCOV,6rtSOPrrtOV
ebpe'TO
Oprlv.2
A questionable Centaur on some Kameiros gold ornaments
holds
up
an animal
of
the
chase with one
hand,
and
may
thus
give
the earliest
instance
of this
aspect
of the
monsters
in
art.3
In
all
forms of
art
during
the
Greco-Roman
period,
the
hunting
Centaur is a
very
favourite
subject.
His
game,
in
works of
this
period,
is
usually
the lion and
panther,
as in
the
famous
Marefoschi
mosaic
now
at
Berlin,
and
in
several
mural
paintings,
sarcophagus
reliefs,
silver
utensils,
&c.
In
the
picture
of
Zeuxis
described
by Lucian,
the
parent
Centaur
holds up a lion cub
to
please
his
young;
Dr.
Stephani
supposes
that
this
was
a
novelty,
and
that
the innovation
designated
by
Lucian,
when
he
speaks
of Zeuxis
having
in
his
picture
abandoned -ra
8
qprl8
KaL
cotva,
was
this
of
making
Centaurs
lion-hunters.
That,
however,
can
hardly
be the
case,
considering
the
exploits
of
the
pupil
of
Cheiron
against
lions as
told
by
Pindar;
and
considering
that
the Centaurs
early
appear
with
the
skins
of
lions
or
panthers
tied about
their throats
for
a
garment;
e.g.
in
our
gem,
fig.
1
(see
p.
129),
and in the
Phigaleian
frieze
;
compare
P1.III. But
it
is
none
the
less certain
that
the
vase-painters
make
the
Cen-
taurs
almost
exclusively
hunters,
not of
large,
but of
small
game.3
1
Stat.,
Achill.,
i.
110
sqq.
2
Opp.
Cyneget.
i.
5.
3
See
below,
p.
130,
and
Salzmann,
La
ANecrop.
e
Kameirus.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
19/65
124
ON
REPRESENTATIONS
F
In
the
representations
of
classes
3,
4,
and
5,
as
we
have
seen,
Pholos and
Cheiron
are
accustomed
to
carry
hares,
foxes,
or
birds
slung
from their shoulders
by
a
pine-branch.
But,
besides
this,
there
are instances
enough
to
form
a
distinct
though
not a
nume-
rous
group,
in
which
vase-painters
have shown
Centaurs
actually
engaged
in
the
chase.'
These
subjects
hardly
ever
form
more
than
a
subordinate decoration
of the
vases where
they
occur.
Sometimes
a
pair
of
Centaurs
drag
each a branch
in
one hand
and
a roe
by
the
neck
in
the
other;
sometimes
one
stands
alone
with
roe, fox,
hare,
or
bird
slung
from
his shouldered
bough.2 On a good example at the British Museum, two,
galloping
from
opposite
sides,
hurl
each
a stone
at
a
bird as
big
as
themselves,
flying
midway
between
them."
7.
Centaurs
n association
with
Bacchus
and
his
train.
This
is
another
subject
treated
very
commonly
indeed
by
artists of all
kinds
in
the
Greco-Roman
period,
but
very
sparingly
and
ambiguously
by
the
Greek
vase-painters.
What I have to
say
about this class of
representations
will
come most
conveniently
under the discussion of Plate III. And now let us take our
three
plates
in
order
and
detail.
Plate I.-The
encounter
of Herakles
and the
Centaurs
on
Mount
Pholo6;
see
above,
Class
2.
Small
two-handled
drinking-
cup
of
the form called
by
Panofka
kotylos
and
by
Gerhard
kotyld,
but
rather
skyphos,
the
kotylos
being
distinctly
charac-
terised
by
Athenaeus
as
one-handled.
H.,
ctm.
10,
diam.,
ctm.
14,
or
across
handles,
20.
This cup, found at Corinth and now in the possession of
M.
Rayet,
is
technically
of the
same
fabric,
though
somewhat
unusually
thin,
as several
others found
in
the
same
neigh-
bourhood,
and
forming
a
separate
group
in
the class
known
generically
as
Greco-Phoenician.5
The
wares
of this
class
are
distinguished
by
bands
of ornament
and
figures
completely
encircling
them,
such
ornaments
and
figures
having
their
outlines and
markings
sharply
incised,
and
being
painted
in
a
1 For all that relates to the hunting
habits
of
Centaurs,
consult
again
Ste-
phani,
Compte
Rendu,
&c.
1862,
p.
71,
and
esp.
1867,
p.
77, 89,
113.
2
e.g.
Jahn,
Vasens.
Kenigs Ludwigs,
155
B,
=
Micali,
Storia, 92, 7;
ibid.
583 B.
3
Cat. of Vasesin B. M. i. no. 849.
4
Jahn,
Vasens.
K6nigs
Ludwigs,
no.
18,
see
ibid,
Einleitung,
p.
cxvii.,
xcix.
5
On
the characteristics
of
this
group,
see
Brunn,
Probleme
in der
Geschichte
der
Vasenmalerei,
?
12.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
20/65
CENTAURS N GREEKVASE-PAINTING.
125
black,
or a
brown
inclining
to
black,
variegated
with
a
red
inclining
to
violet,
and more
sparingly
with
white,
upon
the
pale
yellow
ground
of the natural
clay. Along
with
purely
Asiatic
elements of
conventionalised
animal and monster
upon
a
flowered
background,
they
early
begin
to exhibit
figures
from
Greek
mythology,
often
identified
by inscriptions
in
a
primitive
Doric
alphabet.
In
this
part
of
his work
the artist
does not
usually
follow the conventional
rigidity
of
Asiatic
design,
but
tries,
in
a rude
native
way,
to
render
for himself the
appearances
of life and
movement.
The cup figured in Plate I. is one of those in which the
Oriental
elements
have been
almost
entirely
replaced by
primi-
tive Greek.
On
the
foot of the
cup
is
painted
a
rude
profile
(reproduced
at
the
bottom
of
our
plate)
of
Athen6,
a
goddess
held
in
especial
honour at
Corinth,
and
figured
constantly
on
the
coins
of the
city.
Its outer surface
is
covered,
excepting
the
bands
of ornament at
top
and
bottom,
with
a frieze
of
figures,
from
the
ground
of
which
the Asiatic
rosettes
and
petals
have
been banished, and which represents, with a rough vigour and
sense
of life
totally foreign
to Asiatic
art,
the
story
of
the
Arcadian
Centaurs.1
The
representation
unites,
as
I
have
said,
the
subjects
2
a
(the
hospitality
of
Pholos)
and
2 b
(the
battle),
which
are
generally
kept
apart. Beginning
under one
handle
(at
the
right
of
the two bands
into which the
frieze is
divided
in
our
illustration),
comes
the
black
projecting
object
which
stands
for
the
cave
of
Pholos,
and from which
are
suspended
what seem to
be the bow
and
quiver
of
Herakles,
besides a
third
object
hard
to
recognise.
Below
stands the
great
W7r0oo,
triped
in
red
and
white,
and
in
advance
of it an
enigmatic
object
which
may
be
a
seat
or
table,
though
it
rather
resembles
an altar with
firewood.
This
is a
very
singular
feature
in
the
representation.
If
Cheiron
were
concerned,
we
might
account for
the altar
by
remembering
that
he
was
said
in
the
Titanomachia
to
have
instituted
sacrifices
as well
as of other
salutary
practices
and
ordinances,
oPcov
'7'
8'1
iXapa
Ovo-la
cal
a o-•r ~ar'"
OXL
trov.
1
Of the
vases
yet
known,
that
which
offers
the
closest
analogy
to
our
present
example
is a small
skcyphos
f
similar
form
and
fabric,
with
a
similar
dis-
tribution
of
ornament,
and
of
the same
exceptional
thinness,
found at
Argos,
and
representing,
but
with
less
spirit
and
movement,
the
story
of
Herakles
and the
Hydra.
Pub.
by
Conze,
Arch.
Zeitung, 1859,
pl.
125,
3,
and
p.
34.
8/21/2019 (Pp. 107-167) Sidney Colvin - On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting
21/65
126
ON
REPRESENTATIONS
OF
But
no
such
degree
of civilization is attributed
to
Pholos,
who
is
expressly
described
as
an
eater
of
raw
meat;
and we
must
probably
attribute the altar, if altar it is, to the
piety
rather of
Herakles
than of his
entertainer.
Behind
this
object,
and with
his fore-limbs below
the
knee
hidden
by
it,
stands
Pholos,
with
the
human
part
of
his
body draped:
in
his
left
hand he
holds
a
drinking-cup;
his
right
is raised
in
deprecation
at
the
rude
interruption
to
his
hospitality.
In
advance of him
Herakles
(figured
in the manner
of
early
art,
without his
cognizances
of
club and
lion's
hide)
strides
out
against
the
foe.
He
is
not
using his bow, but hurling boughs or brands which we may sup-
pose
taken
from
the altar
beside
him;
one of
these
is
in
either
hand;
a
third
flies
through
the
air.
This is
at
variance
with
the
representation
on
the chest
of
Kypselos;
there,
according
to
Pausanias,
Herakles
was
using
his
bow,
as
we see
him
in
the
early
bronze
relief
figured
below
(fig.
1,
p.
129)
and
on
other
vases;
but
it tallies
with the
account
as
preserved by
Apollodoros;
as
does
the
overthrow,
already
achieved,
of the
foremost
monster;
and the whole scene might be fairly described in the words of
Quintus
Smyrnaeus:-
ica&
'
ot
/
UV
7r•-EKO7-t
rEp6
6
L
,l'e
KEL•TO
T,
6XOV
V
Xelpeo'',
pI'Xfi
Ot3oq,
rt
•'•-t
iaxp,~
Bflptoci0wr,'
Xc
t
/eLE/LaoTe9,
t'
aIwXer
yo
The
ten
unscathed
monsters
(a larger
number than is shown on
any
other
vase)
flee
precipitately, brandishing
their
pine boughs.
Four
face
round
with
some show
of
resistance;
each
runs with
long
steps
of his
human
forelegs,
the
right
leg
advanced
and
the left
thrown
back,
and
drags
after him
his
equine
termina-
tion;
in
which,
on
the other
hand,
the
expression
of action
is
not
attempted,
but
the
two
legs
cling helplessly together.
The
whole
system of
legs,
equine
and
human,
form
something